Introduction to Philosophy: Socrates and Plato

Philosophy

• Philosophy is the love of wisdom
• An activity undertaken to understand truths about the self and the world
• It involves thinking about ethics, thought, existence, time, meaning, and value
• Philosophy aims to deepen understanding and improve lives through wiser actions
• It associates with wisdom, intellectual culture, and a search for knowledge

Socrates

• Socrates believed "The unexamined life is not worth living"
• One should live an "examined" life:
  • Achieve self-knowledge
  • Uphold dignity with values and integrity
  • Gain and enact wisdom
  • Recognize ignorance
• Acknowledge both known and unknown aspects of self and life
• Life is an ongoing quest for answers
• "To know is to know that you know nothing", the meaning of true understanding

Plato

• Plato stated, "Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge."
• Self-examination is a unique and personal journey
• Leads to a better understanding of the psyche
• Proposed three elements of the psyche:
  • Appetitive: pleasures, desires, satisfactions, and comforts
  • Spirited: motivation to control appetitive elements
  • Mind: superior element that controls the self's expression
  • These elements can collaborate or conflict, influencing behavior

"Know Thyself"

• Imperative: understand personal limits (strengths and weaknesses)
• Requirement: practice self-moderation, prudence, and good judgment

St. Augustine

• St. Augustine believed finding one's imperfections is the very perfection of man
• He saw himself as a sinner
• Acknowledged bad deeds and resolved to change for the better
• Self develops through self-presentation and self-realization
• Conversion to Christianity & Ascetic life relates to vices and pleasures
• Present oneself as a whole, accepting strengths and weaknesses, wanting to improve
• Perspective centers on religious conviction, seeing religious beliefs as guidance
• Happiness is achieved through God
• Self-presentation:
  • Autobiographical
  • The self presents as a literary character with a personal narrative to God
  • Only in the presence of the Omnipotent and Omniscient can the self find happiness and completion
• "Heart is restless until it finds rest in thee."

Modern Philosophies

• View the self as a dialectic synthesis of rationalism and empiricism
• Integrates different viewpoints into a resolution
• Rationalism:
  • Emphasizes thinking, innate ideas, and reason as the main source of knowledge
• Empiricism:
  • Relies on sense experience, where knowledge stems from observation

Human Rationality

• Understanding the self involves experiences

• Use of reason and experience indicates a dialectic synthesis

• Is essential for self's occurrence.

• Humans require to:

  • Assess thoughts
  • Assess actions
  • Develop solid foundations
  • Self protection
  • Increase understanding

• "Cogito, ergo sum": "I think, therefore I am."

• "It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well."

John Locke

• Locke stated, "No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience."
• Advocated empiricism
• Tabula rasa: explains the self starts as an empty space
• Empty space fills with daily experiences, necessary for sense data
  • Experiences encompassing sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches
• Sense data provides meaning
• Fills empty area with knowledge

Rene Descartes

• Descartes stated, “I think, therefore I am."
• He is known as the father of modern philosophy, and a pioneer of rationalism
• Descartes deviated from theocentric views
• To understand the self, one must rely on rational thought
• Reason = Universal Truth
• Methodic Doubt - everything should be questioned
• Searching for certainty can be achieved by systematically having doubts
• When Methodic Doubt is applied, rational thinking is used, proving the existence of the self

David Hume

• Hume stated, "There is no self."
• Most different perspective regarding self's existence
• Proposed the self doesn't exist, but is derived from impressions
• Impressions are subjective, temporary, and prejudicial and do not persist
• Example: A name, physical characteristics and educational pursuits can change
• The self cannot exist if information about it is temporary and changeable

Immanuel Kant

• Kant stated, "Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.”
• Kant stated, "If man makes himself a worm, he must not complain when he is trodden on."
• Synthesized rationalist and empiricist views
• Proposed the self is always transcendental
• Transcendental Apperception - self is outside the body and its qualities
• Ideas are perceived by the self, connecting it to the world
• Rationality - Unites/makes sense of perceptions one has
• Enables sensible ideas about the self and world
• How we see ourselves is how others see us (quote meaning)

Contemporary Philosophies

• Offer understanding of self
• More Relevant

Sigmund Freud

• The "I" constitutes actions

• Topographical Model:

  • The self includes what one knows and is aware of, and what one doesn't know and is unaware of

• Example: You know you are in a subject, but unaware if you will pass

• The "I" is conscious/unconscious and is revealed by Iceberg Theory

• At the conscious level, a person knows their feelings and thoughts

• Subconscious level – easily remembered and brought into awareness

• Unconscious level houses repressed items

• To best understand the self, the elements of the unconscious need to become conscious and accepted

• Freud’s Structural Model:

  • Structures of personality/self are id, ego and superego

  • ID: primitive component

    • Dominant in children

  • Ego: reality principle that balances the id and superego

  • Superego: synthesizes morals

• It is essential to be conscious and unconscious with these components to integrate the self

Gilbert Ryle

• Ryle stated, “I act, therefore I am.”
• Ryle stated, “You are what you do."
• Can be understood by others actions
• Soul is how someone expresses the seld
• Physical actions/behaviors are disposition
• Example: If someone is know acts responsibily they have actions that go with it

Maurice Merleau-Ponty

• Ponty Stated “I live in my body.”
• Developed phenomenological view of self
• Perception relies on empricials and intellect
• Developed “lived body"

Churchland

• Paul and Patricia Churchland stated “Brains are not magical; they are causal machines."
• Brought understanding by neuroscience
• Should abandon how we talk/focus on thought and focus on brain process/anatomy

Emile Durkheim

• Durkheim stated, "To love society is to love something beyond us and something in ourselves. "
• Our lives are shaped by social influences
• How we behave living together = Division of Labor
• Social Integration: connects people

Social Integration

• Culture, rules, and norms can affect behavior
• Analyzes social facts as the fundamental sociology’s task
• Moral Individualism- our laws are equally applied
• Social Integration: How connected an individual is to society
• Results from beliefs, norms and values
• Weak social connections = self destructive
• Solid = strong connections
• Moral Individualism: we all have out individualism in society
  • Should not solely be about individualism and maximize our feelings, but rather also respecting each other
• Society is not a result or conduct it has to do with eachother.

Charles Horton Cooley - The Looking Glass Self

• See each-other by how they socially impact.
• Shaped by impressions
• Social Interactions create themselves
• May have a sense of respect
• Self Identies are still subject to changes

The Labeling Bias

• We have expectations or judgements, and it affects it when we label.
• Occurs when people repeatedly evaluate our labels and incorporate them into our concept.
• Prejudice is toward our way of life may push others to feel negatively toward our way of life.

George Herbert Mead - Stages of the Self

• Concept of ones self
• Merges through Social Interaction
• NEITHER Present at birth Components:
• ME what expect
• I - Response to others

Stages to emerge Self

• (1-3yr) Preparatory
• Imitate
• See the need to talk to live
• Become aware of roles
• (4-7 year old) PLAY STAGE

PLAY STAGE

• Become aware of each social other View point View each other and respond accordingly

GAME STAGE

• Begins to think about work, school and relationship.
• Perspective makes them consider what others would see, instead of egocentrically making it about themselves

Anthropological Perspective-Zeus Salazar

• Need for understanding this view helps language
• Understand ourself

Prosperity

• We need dynamic beliefs and understanding to know our person.
• Know our body and budhi

Types of Culture

• Sense of family with groups and affiliation
• Individualized = Emphasis on “I”
• Collects views

Western Thought

• What we want of souls
• Plato = soul inhabited world while our body has sensible descent

Aristotle

• Where human is matters

Hindu

• The soul the true to Brahman

The social construction

• Character’s traits
• Ourself with set goals for only our selves

Explore the world of philosophy with a look at Socrates, who championed the examined life, and Plato, who identified desire, emotion, and knowledge as drivers of human behavior. Gain insights into self-knowledge.